The U.S. Department of Labor sets out certain criteria to protect construction workers from falling off high area platforms, including scaffolds. For instance, the criteria require, in part, that the workers be tied-off while working on such platforms to prevent accidental falls. Various devices have been used to tie-off or secure workers, but many of them are not suitable for erecting or building a scaffold and often have several drawbacks.
For example, some safety devices restrict workers to a work area of one or two square meters which impede or slow down their ability to work efficiently and get the job completed quickly. Other safety devices prevent workers from moving between sections of scaffold because a lanyard, the cord that connects the harness to the safety device, often gets caught on the scaffold structure or the safety device itself. Hence, workers create a dangerous situation because, many times, they have to disconnect the lanyard from the safety device, move to the next section of scaffold, and reconnect to a safety device on this scaffold section. Workers can accidentally fall when moving between sections with such a device, or sometimes they forget to reconnect all together.
Hence, a need exists for a scaffold safety device that allows workers to build or erect a scaffold. A further need exists to allow workers to be tied-off, but provide a larger work area. Yet, another need exists for a scaffold safety device that does not require a worker to disconnect and/or reconnect to a safety device when moving between more than one scaffold section.